


pang after pang

by SerenePanic



Series: VLD Angst Week 2017 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, broganes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 09:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10383222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenePanic/pseuds/SerenePanic
Summary: Shiro just wanted a nice, peaceful break, so he could see what was up with his little bro.Keith shouldn't be allowed to climb trees unsupervised.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Christina Rossetti's "Introspective".
> 
> Part of VLD Angst Week.
> 
> March 20th: Injury.

Shiro is excited to go home.

The Garrison’s accelerated post-secondary education program is _grueling_ , and while in the end, he’s sure it’ll be worth it, as it stands now…he doesn’t remember the last time he got more than three consecutive hours of sleep, his laundry is piled up because he’s honestly just too tired to deal with it all, and on top of the sheer burnout that comes with intensive classes intended to prepare an individual to go to space is just.

He’s struggling to hold it together enough to get through these last few classes, and then he’s on his way home. Before night comes, he’ll be back at home with his parents and Keith, and he can see what’s been bothering Keith so intensely. Because something’s up, and he can see it in the way Keith won’t text him unless he needs a question answered, and in the way he won’t speak on the phone for more than a moment or two, and in how those few moments when he will talk to Shiro, he’ll be quiet and subdued.

He doesn’t think it’s anything too serious, but Shiro is also well aware that his attention has been mostly diverted towards his classwork, of late, and he’s letting Keith slip through the cracks, but there’s not much he can do about that right now. He just has to get through today, and then he can pay attention to Keith.

He’s looking forward to it, to be honest. He misses his brother.

Finally, finally, _finally_ , his last class ends, and as soon as humanly possible, Shiro has his bag and is out the Garrison door and on the train home. He usually hates the train—it’s crowded and loud and cramped, but today, he doesn’t mind. Everyone else seems to be filled with the same lethargy he has, and he can just. Sit. And lean his head against the window, and think.

Keith’s been…quiet, lately. Not enough to concern their parents, Shiro thinks, because they haven’t brought anything up to him—but then again, he has been away for a few months, and Keith’s at an age where he might not want to get all caught up in telling things to his parents. Still, Shiro’d like to keep judgments for _after_ he’s actually talked to Keith. He doesn’t want to make snap judgments, not for something as important as potentially his entire relationship with his younger brother.

Shiro closes his eyes and just feels—the cool glass sticking to his forehead, the rumbling of the train over the tracks, the faint headache creeping up at the edges of his head, his heartbeat that’s just a few beats too fast (a remnant of the past month of over caffeination and stress and not enough sleep), his tense shoulders.

He’s so tired.

He dozes, for the rest of the ride home. It’s not the most restful sleep, but it’s a solid five hours—it’s more than he’s had in the past week, so he wakes up at his stop feeling more coherent than he has in what feels like forever.

Walking back from the train stop, his bag swung over his shoulder, Takashi Shirogane is going home, and he’s so glad. He’s missed these familiar streets, these comfortable patterns of life. It’s peaceful.

(Well, it is until he turns the corner.)

Shiro’s parents live on a corner, but he walks up along the side and turns to get to the front yard, where there’s a sturdy, tall tree in the front. When he was younger, he loved to climb it—and apparently Keith’s learned to do the same thing.

He turns, and it’s like a slow-motion crash.

The sky is bright, brilliant blue. The tree, impossibly tall, stands with its leaves waving gently in the wind. Keith is sitting amongst the upper branches, laughing at something Shiro can’t see. Shiro barely has time to smile and drop his bags before he sees the disaster occur.

Keith leans too far back, just the slightest bit, and Shiro can see his eyes widen and he can _hear_ him gasp as he falls, leaves ripping apart as Keith crashes down.

Shiro runs toward the tree, but Keith falls faster than Shiro can make it across the yard and Shiro has to watch his little brother hit the ground and _bounce_.

He doesn’t get up, and Shiro is at his side almost immediately, babbling and shouting in terror. He doesn’t remember what he’s saying—something about Keith being hurt and _Keith please God open your eyes Keith please_ —and he’s so _scared_ and before he knows it his father is pulling him back, emergency services are lifting Keith onto a stretcher, and their mother is getting into the ambulance as it shrieks off.

Shiro can’t breathe.

He’s on the ground again, hands bracing him from behind as he stares up at his father. He can see his reflection in his father’s glasses—wide eyes, and absolutely terrified.

He doesn’t know what to _do_.

His father helps him up, and then they’re in the car, driving towards the hospital.

Shiro just keeps seeing Keith hit the ground on replay in his mind—the way his head had landed against the ground, bouncing and hitting it again and then staying achingly still.

Then they’re in the waiting room, and a nurse is talking to Shiro soothingly, trying to convince him that he’s in shock and he needs to sit down and she’s probably _right_ but he can’t just sit and wait for _news_ he doesn’t _want_ to be taken care of he wants to know if his brother is _okay_ he just—he’s hyperventilating. Maybe the nurse has a point.

It feels like forever later (Shiro never did learn how long they waited, and he never asked, to be honest) that a doctor comes out and tells them that Keith’s fine—stunned, a broken arm from hitting branches on the way down, bruised ribs, and a mild concussion from hitting the ground—but he’s alive and awake and he’ll be just fine.

Shiro doesn’t believe it until he sees Keith, small and pale and bruised but sitting up and talking to their mother softly from his hospital bed. As soon as Keith turns and sees him, he grins brightly, and Shiro can finally breath again, and his hands stop trembling.

He makes his way over to Keith, and cautiously pulls him into a tight hug, squeezing his eyes shut.

He was so, so scared. Keith is only twelve—he’s too young to be terrifying his brother like this.

Keith whispers, softly, but Shiro hears him all the same.

“I could hear you, you know. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I knew you were there. You’re always there, when I need you to be.”

They never talk about it, later, and Shiro honestly isn’t sure if Keith even meant to say it out loud, but he did all the same and Shiro knows what it means that Keith even though that, about him. He just holds him tighter, and feels the tension leave them both with every breath.

(Four years later, Shiro is lost to space, and every time he goes to sleep he faces that moment when Keith hit the ground, except in these dreams he doesn’t wake up, because Shiro’s not there for him when he needs it. Not anymore.)

But right now, in this moment, Shiro cradles his younger brother and swears to himself that he won’t ever be too late ever again.

(He doesn’t realize until he’s back at school that he never did get around to figuring out what was up with Keith.)


End file.
